Rapha Condor to South Africa

The Rapha Condor Professional Cycling team gets its season underway in a couple of days time with two races in South Africa, the Tour de Boland and the Giro del Capo. Currently the whole squad is training at the Sol Andalusi resort in Malaga, Spain, where they have spent the last week fine tuning their form.

The riders selected for the South African trip are Kristian House and Chris Newton, who are retained from the 2008 Rapha Condor squad along with four new signings – Simon Richardson, Tom Southam, Darren Lapthorne and Dan Craven. Craven is the current leader of the UCI African Tour and as such will wear the white jersey that symbolises that classification throughout the trip.

With Chris Newton joining the squad having competed at the recent track world cup in Copenhagen and House, Southam and Lapthorne having shown good form on their respective winters in Australia, team manager John Herety expects the team to perform well next week;

"The guys who are riding at Boland and the Giro del Capo have known for some time that this is where their season begins, so they've been preparing with this date in mind and they're definitely in good shape for the race. I think that the squad we're sending to South Africa is a versatile one and we'll be looking to make our presence felt in both races."